Talk:BETA/@comment-27194581-20151111143100/@comment-4391208-20151127030304
The spike legs point outwards. And given that it has 10 points of contact to balance with, it's a lot more stable than any TSF out there. Just around us, pet dogs/cats stand on "legs" as well but you don't see them in danger of toppling everytime something bumps into them, and that's just 4 points of contact. Most of the time it's the stinger doing the work, the Fort doesn't chase TSFs around trying to hit them with its legs, just that its legs can destroy TSFs if it steps on one (makes sense, right)? If it does, it does; if it doesn't, it'll just use its stinger to catch its target. Beats me what it does. No one has ever actually seen the BETA mine anyways... Maybe fire its stinger into rock and inject acid to weaken it. It can carry small BETA around so it has a power-saving role as well. The acid is secreted from its stinger. 1. That depends on how much ammunition the autocannons have in comparison to the 36/120, probably. While they're more powerful it's also rather useless to have a gun that can only fire 20 times before it runs dry. The 36/120 isn't as strong as Heavy autocannons but it's already good enough for most BETA types, and while its 120mm has only 6 rounds, it's got 2000 rounds for the 36mm as well; enough to kill anything up to Destroyer-class. Then again if autocannons hold about upwards a thousand to two thousand rounds, then the autocannon would be better in most cases. 2. I think those are supposed to be BETA corpses? So they're already dead in the first place. It's just the shockwave of the blast tossing them up. Even if those were live BETA, its target was always either enemy formations behind them and/or the Susanoo IV up in orbit. Either way, it was because of the Superior gaining intel on human forces that allowed it to create the Fort Laser to counter what it saw in that intel. Knowing when to sacrifice some of its forces seems a natural progression of its growing knowledge of strategic matters. 3. There are a lot of these "important things". Major ones are: regular artillery support, constant upkeep of heavy metal cover, setting up supply lines and comm lines for troops entering the Hive. These are for the "typical" Hive assault operations. Although, the only time this succeeded against a typical Hive was during Operation Sledgehammer, so it really depends on the situation. In fact, until Sadogashima, humanity's estimates of number of BETA per Hive was half less than what they actually encountered during the battle, so it says a lot about how relying on "typical" for a Hive operation is a surefire way to lose everything when the assault flops. Plan for the developing situation. 4. It should be. Japan is the one with the original schematics and blueprints, they could build a second prototype if they so wished to. 5. Probably. Then again, I think this might be a case of the TSFs being better; not only is it faster than most 'Mechs if it wants to get away, as its AL coating might block enough of the Micro Laser to make it ineffective in the short-term, TSFs in general are a lot better suited to taking out small targets on their frames (picking off Tank-class) so if the Elementals aren't attentive enough, they'll be facing the pointed end of a slab of super-carbon coming at them. The claw might actually be more effective than the laser, provided it's used in hit-and-run; jump on, tear off something, jump off before the TSF can retaliate. Still, all these depends on the TSF staying close enough. A TSF on standard Surfacing movement can easily outrun a 'Mech, never mind an Elemental, and at that point it changes to how well Elementals can dodge 36mm rounds fired in single-shot mode...